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Energy and Environmental Policy and Economic Development

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Energy Issues and Transition to a Low Carbon Economy

Part of the book series: Strategies for Sustainability ((STSU))

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Abstract

The Stockholm Declaration of 1972 first officially recognized the call for worldwide Sustainable Development. Almost fifty years after that, the world has its greatest opportunity to pursue this goal. Environmental policy and energy policy are key tools for achieving sustainable development as there are a fair (and growing) number of worldwide experiences that show that the focus on environmentally-responsible practices can boost growth. Developing countries are those to get the most benefits, as they are the most affected by environmental threats. In light of the latter, this chapter revisits the theoretical perspectives on micro and macro system on economic development and environmental policy. The case of Europe is stressed as an example of successful integration of the latter into overall policy action. The chapter then discusses the role of Sustainable Energy Technologies (SET) and other alternatives as core elements of a sustainable and economic growth driven framework, and analyzes Portugal context within the European Union as a case study. Lastly, this chapter identifies challenges and opportunities for Mexico to build an integrated energy and environmental policy framework that supports development considering the tension this creates with the policy standpoint of the country’s current administration.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The immediate environment refers to an area of natural environment within which a certain society lives and performs most of its activities. Particularly, the immediate environment provides direct environmental services to the particular society (e.g., sanitation, air cleansing, and water provision).

  2. 2.

    Environmental concerns were first included in the National Plan of Development in 1983 (CITA), and some advances were established during the next couple of decades. However, such efforts were isolated and did not constitute a strategic central element of Mexican policy. One of the first long run measures that tried to incorporate environmental concerns with energy planning was attained during Felipe Calderon’s presidential term under the National Strategy of Energy. It was a yearly publication that spanned actions to be carried out for the next 15 years in order to foster the energy trilemma: energy security, energy transition and energy efficiency. However, the document was eradicated in Enrique Peña Nieto’s second year at office never to return again.

  3. 3.

    This period comprehends the six years from the promulgation of the General Law of Climate Change to the last year of Peña Nieto’s presidential term, which de facto was the last year of full implementation of energy reform advances.

  4. 4.

    The starkest of them comes from the fact that in the Nation’s Project 2018–2024, President López Obrador’s political platform as a candidate, the energy vision is called “Oil Program”, with a strong stance in favor of increasing oil and gas and fuels production. But others include the increase in coal purchases for CFE’s generation plants and the constant public declarations of high officials from CFE and CENACE (grid’s ISO) that renewable sources are both expensive and inefficient.

  5. 5.

    Peña Nieto’s administration created three tender processes with more than 40 firms participating with a total 9 thousand million USD investment for generation capacity, of which more than 90% was renewable. The average price of the last tender reached a worldwide record-breaking level of $20.57 USD/MWh.

  6. 6.

    Basically, the incentive-based mechanisms were designed to promote new investments in clean energy (mainly from solar PV and wind generation plants) by giving them market advantage with respect to older more expensive and dirtier generation plants. The mechanism aimed to create an environment where firms with the latter central plants (mainly CFE) would have to buy certificates from the former (mainly new investments), thus giving recent clean energy projects a competitive advantage that would allow the addition of new (clean) energy sources that might have not occurred otherwise.

  7. 7.

    According to the Mexican Center of Environmental Law (CEMDA), if the new refinery initiates its operation by 2022, the annual CO2 equivalent output would rise to 2.16 million metric tons which would imply a total output of 17.3 MtCO2 equivalent by 2030, thus jeopardizing the Nationally Determined Contributions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (CEMDA Bulletin No. 33/19).

  8. 8.

    While ASEA’s argument about not providing full information about the refinery project is based on grounds of industrial protection for PEMEX in an open market setting, there is genuine concern about the independence of ASEA’s environmental impact assessment given that the new Executive Director lacks professional experience in both environmental and industrial security fields, but is a close former collaborator of Mexico’s President.

  9. 9.

    CFE’s financial statements report a deterioration on the Operational Balance that closed 2015 from $2.1 billion USD to 2019–$820 million USD. Net total debt in 2019 accounts for $1 billion USD. And, while total investment increased from an average of $1.67 billion USD during the period of 2015–2018 to $2.5 billion USD in 2019, most of resources were devoted to maintenance of coal, combined cycle and thermal generation plants.

Abbreviations

ASEA:

Agency for the oil and gas sector (Mexico)

CEL:

Clean Energy Certificates (Mexico)

CFE:

Federal Electricity Commission (Mexico)

CIT:

Carbon Intensive Technologies

CNH:

National Hydrocarbon Commission (Mexico)

CRE:

Regulatory Energy Commission (Mexico)

ENE:

National Energy Strategy

EU:

European Union

GHG:

Greenhouse Gases

IMO:

International Maritime Organization

MIBEL:

Iberian Electricity market

PEMEX:

Mexican Oil State Company

PNAC:

National Program for Climate Change

PNAE:

National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (Portugal)

PNALE:

National Plan for the Allocation of Emission Allowances

PV:

Photovoltaic

R&D:

Research and Development

SCE:

National System of Certification of Energy and Air Quality in Buildings

SDG:

United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals

SET:

Sustainable Energy Technologies

SGCIE:

Management System of Intensive Energy Consumption

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Escuela de Gobierno y Transformación Pública, Sede Mixcoac, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Av Revolución 756, Segundo Piso, Nonoalco, Benito Juárez, 03700, Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico

    Luis Serra-Barragán, Edmundo Molina-Perez & Zeus Guevara

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  1. Luis Serra-Barragán
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  2. Edmundo Molina-Perez
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  3. Zeus Guevara
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Correspondence to Luis Serra-Barragán .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tecnológico de Monterrey, Toluca, Mexico state, Mexico

    Francisco J. Lozano

  2. Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico

    Alberto Mendoza

  3. Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico City, Mexico

    Arturo Molina

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Serra-Barragán, L., Molina-Perez, E., Guevara, Z. (2022). Energy and Environmental Policy and Economic Development. In: Lozano, F.J., Mendoza, A., Molina, A. (eds) Energy Issues and Transition to a Low Carbon Economy. Strategies for Sustainability. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75661-1_2

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